Railroad-tie.



PATENTED NOV. 21, 1905.

W. A. AUSTIN.

RAILROAD TIE.

APPLICATION FILED JUNE 1. 1 905.

2 SHEETSSHEET 1.

Guam; 3

N0. 805,255. PATENTED NOV.21, 1905.

W. A. AUSTIN. RAILROAD TIE.

APPLICATION FILED JUNE 1, 1905.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

Winn W TA/ESSES;

Hilamey UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

RAILROAD-TIE.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Nov. 21, 1905.

Application filed June 1,1905. Serial No, 263,231.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that 1, WILLIAM A. AUSTIN, a citizen of theUnited States, residing at I/Vayne, in the Chickasaw Nation, Indian Territory, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Railroad-Ties; and I do hereby declare the following to bea full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

This invention relates to railway-ties.

One object of the invention is to provide a metallic tie embodying such strength and characteristics as to result positivelyin durability.

Another object of the invention is to provide a metallic tie embodying such characteristics as to obviate the use of rail-spikes.

A still further object of the invention is to provide a light, inexpensive, durable, simple, and efiiicient hollow tie of such character that the use of spikes will be obviated even at the connection or joint of the abutting ends of rail-sections.

WVith these and other objects in view the present invention consists in the combination and arrangement of parts, as will be hereinafter more fully described, shown in the accompanying drawings, and particularly pointed out in the appended claims, it being understood that changes in the form, proportion, size, and minor details may be made within the scope of the claims without departing from the spirit or sacrificing any of the advantages of the invention.

In the drawings, Figure 1 is a top plan view illustrating two of my improved ties arranged for association with railway-rails. Fig. 2 is an elevation illustrating the side of my im proved tie and the ends of the rail-sections. Fig. 3 is a detail perspective View of one of the metallic boxes on a larger scale. Fig. 4 is a top plan view of a modification. Fig. 5 is a longitudinal section through one end portion of the tie.

Referring now more particularly to the accompanying drawings, the reference characters 1 and 2 designate oppositely-disposed hollow boxes, the tops and bottoms and sides of said boxes terminating at their inner ends evenly with each other, with the outer ends of the sides curved downwardly toward the bottoms and the tops terminating short of the outer ends of the bottoms, as clearly shown. These boxes may be formed of a single piece of sheet metal, cast-iron, or other suitable material, or, if desired, they may be formed of separate pieces; but the formation thereof of a single piece of material is preferred.

Connecting the inner ends of the boxes 1 and 2 upon each side thereof are metallic members or tie-plates 3 and 4, whose opposite ends are designed to extend into the corresponding boxes and be secured to theinner faces of the corresponding sides by means of suitable bolts 5 and 6. These connecting members 3 and 4 serve to hold the boxes in proper spaced relation.

Struck up from the upper face 7 of each box are spaced tongues 8 and 9, each of which has its free end 8 and 9, respectively, bent slightly at an angle with respect to its body portion, the tongues of each box being directed toward each other for the purpose of engaging the outer bottom flanges of the rails 10 and 1], the inner bottom flanges of the rails 10 and 11 being engaged by thefree ends of the top cross-piece 12, which is connected to the upper faces 7 of the boxes, at the inner ends of the latter, by means of suitable bolts 13, the extremities of the cross-piece 12 being bent upwardly, as at 12 and 12 for engagement over the upper faces of the corresponding flanges and to provide shoulders 14 and 15 for engagement with the edges of the corresponding flanges. This cross-piece 12 by reason of its peculiar formation at the ends and its cooperation with the aforesaid tongues 8 and 9 positively holds the rails in alinement and prevents lateral spreading of the latter. Another important feature derived is a result of the peculiar formation of the shoulders 16 of the tongues and their cooperation with the rails and the-shoulders 14 and 15 of the upper or tie plate 12 positively obviate the use of spikes. Furthermore, by reason of. this peculiar construction and arrangement the abutting ends of rail-sections are held together without the use of spikes. This is due to the fact that the rails are designed to be wedged into engagement with the tongues and the extremities of the tie plates, the tongues being sufficiently flexible as to permit this wedging action. Of course the bent extremities of the tie plates may also be of such nature as to provide suflicient flexibility as to yield with respect to the yielding of the tongues upon the wedging therebetween of a rail-section. A still further important feature of my invention resides in the fact that as a result of this wedging action of the rails between the tongues and tie-plates not only the use ofspikes is obviated, but also the employment of angle-irons or Z-bars or the connection of one box or tie-plate with an adjacent tie-plate or box alining correspond ingly with the boxes upon each side of the rails. A still further feature resides in the fact that access may be had to the interior of the end boxes for cleaning purposes or for the purpose of readily securing elements (not shown) through the bottoms of the boxes for holding them securely upon the road-bed and obviating the necessity of burying the boxes in the latter.

As shown in Fig. A of the drawings, the side members may be formed integral with the end boxes.

l/Vhat is claimed is' 1. A rail-tie comprising spaced metallic boxes, tie-plates connecting the boxes and detachably secured upon the inner faces of the sides of the box at the inner ends of the latter, and a tie-plate detachably secured to the top faces of the boxes and provided with upwardly-turned rail-llange-engaging members, the upper face of each box being provided with spaced tongues struck up therefrom for engagement with the flange of the rail opposite to the flange engaged by the corresponding end of the top tie-plate.

2. A rail-tie comprising spaced hollow boxes, each box having spacedalining tongues struck up from the top face thereof, tieplates connecting the boxes and secured to the inner faces of the sides thereof. and a top tie-plate secured to the upper faces of the boxes and having upwardly-turned ends directed toward the aforesaid tongues for the wedging reception therebetween and the tongues of railway-rails.

3. A metallic railway-tie comprising spaced hollow boxes, each box having spaced alining tongues formed in its upper face, each tongue being bent to form a shoulder, tie-plates connecting the boxes and secured at theirends against the inner faces of the sides of the WILLIAM A. AUSTIN.

lVitnesses:

W. M. ToMLIN, B. H. Lovn. 

